24 
BULLETIN OE THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Pupilla decora and arctica; Acanthmula liarpa; Liinnwa ovata; L. Inimilis; Pisidium 
equilaierale. The new species described from Bering Island by Anrivillius is Pleuro- 
toma heringi; and by Dali, in his first paper, Lacunella rejiexa (p. 341, pi. ii, figs. 1-3), 
CeritMopsis stejnegeri (p. 345, pi. il, fig. 4), and Strombella caUorhina var. stejnegeri (p. 
34G, pi. II, figs. 5, 6). 
AVORMS. 
At least one species of earthworm occurs, and several leeches, but, like the rest of 
the lower invertebrates collected, they have not been reported u]3on as yet. Wiren has 
described a new species of chietopod from Bering Island, viz, PotamiUa neglecta (Vega 
Exp. Vet. lakt., li, 1883, j). 422). 
SPONGES. 
A new variety [arctica) of Esperia lingtia has been described from Bering Island 
(5-10 fathoms) by Eristedt (Vega Exp. Vet. lakt., iv, p. 449, pi. xxv, figs. 20-24; pi. 
XXIX, fig. 18). 
PLANTS. 
It was quite to be expected that Steller, as an expert botanist, should have made 
extensive botanical collections on Bering Island, and as he seems to have collected 211 
species of plants there (see Pennant, Ai ct. Zook, Sup]il., 1787, p. 38), he gathered more 
species than any of the various collectors who visited the island afterwards. Thus the 
combined collections of Dybowski, Wieiuuth, and Kjellman include 144 phanerogams, 
while I have brought home nearly exactly the same number of species. The combined 
number of si)ecies, however, is much greater. Dr. Kjellman has published an inter- 
esting account of the flora as revealed in the first-mentioned collections (Vega Ex]>. 
Vet. lakt., IV, 1887, pp. 281-309), while the late Prof. Asa Gray, in 1885, rei)orted 
upon my collections in the Proceedings of the United States Kational Museum, vii, 
pp. 527-529, to wdiich paper I added a few remarks [ibid., pp. 529-538). During my 
trip in 1895 I had but scant time and facilities for collecting x>lants, and 1 confined 
myself chiefly to an unsuccessful search for Gassiope oxycoccoides in the exact locality 
and about the same season as I had collected it in 1882. Kevertheless, I was able to 
add a few species to the flora, which Dr. J, jST. Eose, of the National Herbarium, has 
kindly determined for me as Carex rariflora, Kmnigia islandica, and Banuncuhisliyper- 
boreus. From the lists imblished it should now be iiossible to conq)ile a tolerably 
conqilete flora of Commander Islands iihanerogams. 
Dr. Asa Gray described one of my ericaceous idauts as new, viz, Gassiope 
oxycoccoides, and the late Dr. George Vasey afterwards determined one of the grasses 
to be new and named it Alopccurus stejnegeri (Proc. D. S. Kat. Mus., x, 1887, ji. 153; 
figured as fig. 2, pi. xxiv. Grasses Pacif. Slope, by Vasey, pt. i, 1892). As these 
species have not as yet been recorded from other localities they must be regarded, 
lirovisionally at least, as iieculiar to the Commander Islands, and Dr. Kjellman’s 
statement to the contrary effect [tom. cit., j). 286) must be modified accordingly. 
Dr. Kjellman’s concluding remarks [tom, cit., i). 289) are so interesting and imx)or- 
tant that I venture to translate them here, as follows: 
The flora of the Commander Islands is chiefly composed of two elements. One of these consists 
of species not entering the present Arctic region, or at any rate not to he regarded as belonging to the 
characteristic plants of this region. Most of these have their chief range of the present day extending 
over the islands and coasts of the Northern Pacitic Ocean. These form the bulk of the vegetation 
